When it comes to pay for top administrators, school districts walk a tightrope, with one end anchored in affordability and the other in competitiveness.

With teachers, compensation is tied to collective bargaining agreements, which typically take into account the educator’s experience and number of degrees, Vestal Superintendent Mark LaRoach said. Same holds true for principals.

However, contracts for top administrators — such as the superintendent and assistant superintendent for business — are individual, and determined by their Board of Education.

“We have a duty to our taxpayers. That’s really what it amounts to,” said Vestal Board of Education President Kim Myers. “We have to balance what our taxpayers can afford and we want to get the best person in the job. You get what you pay for.”

There’s a system, however, for determining what top administrators make — and a reason why Binghamton’s superintendent, for example, makes more than Deposit’s. Factors that go into administrator pay include the size of the district, the size of its budget and years of experience, said Broome-Tioga BOCES Superintendent Allen Buyck, who helps conduct superintendent searches for districts in his BOCES region.

When helping school boards determine salary ranges for future superintendents, Buyck considers the pay scale at other Broome-Tioga districts as well as those in the adjacent Greater Southern Tier and Delaware-Chenango-Madison-Otsego BOCES regions. The Southern Tier’s are comparable, he said.

Salaries are typically higher downstate, in the Capitol region and in larger urban areas such as Syracuse and Buffalo. Part of that comes down to the cost of living, which is generally lower in the Southern Tier. A prospective Long Island superintendent, for example, would be unlikely to take the job for $150,000, Buyck said. While generous in the Tier, that salary range wouldn’t be attractive downstate.

Salary and compensation are also two different matters, and make comparisons between districts more complicated. An example is Andrews, who doesn’t receive health or life insurance through Windsor and is reimbursed by the district for that, as well as unused vacation time. While his total compensation was listed as $162,113 for 2010-11, his actual salary is $149,606 and has remained at that level for three years.

Andrews, like LaRoach, Buyck and other area superintendents, has taken a pay freeze to accommodate the tough financial situation that schools face.

“He said he wouldn’t accept an increase in salary in these times,” Myers said of LaRoach.

Seniority, or how long a superintendent has been in the position, is a factor in pay, as well as overall experience. A first-time superintendent would cost less than one with more experience, but that may not be the best fit for a particular district, officials said.

Retiring Binghamton Superintendent Peggy Wozniak’s salary is typically among the top in the Broome-Tioga BOCES region. Her district is also the region’s largest and she has some of the greatest seniority in the post, with a decade of service in Binghamton. Wozniak’s successor, Marion H. Martinez, will receive a salary of $170,000, slightly more than Wozniak’s salary of $166,000; Martinez has experience as a superintendent and as an associate commissioner for Connecticut’s Department of Education in Connecticut.

As with everything economic, there is supply and demand. Only a small pool of people typically have the education and experience needed to head school districts, and the job comes with long hours and a great deal of responsibility. Superintendents are essentially CEOs of the districts they run, overseeing budgets in the tens of millions. And assistant superintendents don’t just pick up work their boss can’t get to; rather, their positions are equivalent to other executive level posts, such as CFO.

“People generally don’t think twice about a corporation having both a CEO and a CFO,” Myers said.